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The Shaker Explainer: Stuff you need to know

Welcome back to The Shaker Explainer, your guide to modern office lingo and the latest in tech, food and lifestyle trends.

Meat-based Algorithms

According to Stanford’s Reilly Brennan, this charming descriptor refers to Uber drivers. Yep, this is the way that Silicon Valley values human labour until the inevitable rise of the machines.

Brennan was speaking at South by SouthWest Festival on the topic of autonomous vehicles. Judging by his Twitter feed, he’s quite upbeat about the technology’s future.

However this makes sense when you consider that he’s an investor in said technology and probably salivates at the thought of drivers being replaced by something he’s thrown his money at.

Democracy

Apparently a joke, according to The Chinese Party. The outrageous behaviour occurring through the US Primaries is great fodder for a bunch of old men trying to keep 1.4 billion people in order.

On Monday, The Global Times – a paper controlled by the Chinese Communist Party – claimed that “The rise of a racist in the US political area worries the whole world,” while China Xinhua (also closely aligned with the government) Tweeted the following:

Short for ‘Kombucha’ (still confused?), this is a fermented, lightly effervescent sweetened black or green tea drink that are commonly intended as functional beverages for their supposed health benefits.

Filled with probiotics and anti-oxidants, Kombucha allegedly comes with all sorts manner of claims – many of which are yet to be proven.

If you’re still struggling with the concept, ask that guy at work who’s into cross-fit.

HyperAdapt

Back to the Future Day was 21 October 2015, and sadly there was no sign of hoverboards. US footwear giant, Nike, wasn’t going to let a marketing opportunity pass by, and release limited-edition replicas of the famous self-tying sneakers.

This week, they’ve gone for more hype with a more functional version of the mythical technology. The HyperAdapt 1.0 apparently works off an app (naturally!) and responds to the movement of your foot.

The shoes are coming later this year. In the meantime, here’s a teaser: